New kaiju game from Matt Frank + Simon Strange [Archive]

[Goji]

Godzilla also absorbed electricity and became even stronger in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Both monsters have been shown to thrive off of electricity at some point. While there have been a handful of occasions where humans have used electricity to fend Godzilla off, it was never stated that he was particularly weak against it. Considering how unmoved by the electric current Godzilla was in the original movie, I'd say he's not particularly weak against it.

It would appear that a higher voltage of electricty is what actually hurts him in the films of the early 60's. The first Godzilla plowed through power lines..but that was a different Godzilla.

MECHAGODZILLA '74 was released a decade after MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, and the powers Godzilla was given in the 70's, were absolutely ridiculous. The only reason it 'charged' him in that one film is because the script called for it...just like the script called for him to (clearly) be weak to electricity in 1962; to give Kong an advantage. Having him be weak to it in a video game for the sake of balance really isn't that big of a deal, IMO, considering it was interchangeable in the films anyway. Like I said earlier, Godzilla needs to be weak to something, because he's already insanely good.

It seems like Alien Energy would be a reasonable weakness for Godzilla.

Yeah, that could work.

[leunames]

Godzilla also absorbed electricity and became even stronger in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Both monsters have been shown to thrive off of electricity at some point. While there have been a handful of occasions where humans have used electricity to fend Godzilla off, it was never stated that he was particularly weak against it. Considering how unmoved by the electric current Godzilla was in the original movie, I'd say he's not particularly weak against it.

It seems like Alien Energy would be a reasonable weakness for Godzilla. King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams could even be a combination of Electric and Alien Energy (since he IS an alien), so he could keep his advantage over Godzilla.

Yes, but I think you're taking it too far. The point of the game was to introduce balance with some groundwork in the fiction. The fact that there are contradictory occasions concerning electricity and Godzilla was secondary to ONE of the instants depicting an impairment to electricity. I.E., as long as precedence was established they took that and ran with it. I can't fault that approach because really if you're going to nitpick when he was weak to electricity the whole Showa canon is rife with inconsistencies of a far greater degree, never mind the heisei canon.

[Fiender]

Godzilla (Heisei)
Anguirus (Showa)
Rodan (Showa)
Mothra Imago (Heisei)
Ghidorah (Showa)
Kiryu
Hedorah (Showa)
Gigan (Showa)

[Mr. Strange]

Balancing the monsters is really about making up for intangibles with a few levers which can swing things in one direction or another.

The numbers & stats displayed aren't the only things determining the "balance" of the monsters - far from it! There are tens of thousands of numbers associated with each monster - the damage and attack type of each hit, the length of time the monster spends reacting to different hits, the breakdown of which reactions override which monster actions (movements, attacks, weapons) - it is far, far more complex than any discussion we could have here.

With this new project, we have a mostly clean slate to work from. The best use of our time is to lay out the things we did like - so that I can make sure that those things come back in a very similar form. Start with the positive, and we'll use it to establish a framework. Most of the things being discussed here won't ever come up again - because there will be different balance issues in the new project, which will require new solutions.

Here's a controls question - did anyone ever use the button-only combos? Things like A,B,X? Or did everyone just dis (dir)+Button all the time, and win the game with single-hits?

[matrix]

I mostly used the directional stick with buttons, but I think the buton only attacks need to have some advantage, like maybe stun the person if you hit enough with button only attacks. (im pretty sure that happend in G:U ps2, but it took so many attacks)

[SpanishBulldog63]

Here's a controls question - did anyone ever use the button-only combos? Things like A,B,X? Or did everyone just dis (dir)+Button all the time, and win the game with single-hits?

I used both, but used combos a bit more

I mostly used the directional stick with buttons, but I think the buton only attacks need to have some advantage, like maybe stun the person if you hit enough with button only attacks. (im pretty sure that happend in G:U ps2, but it took so many attacks)

That happened on the Wii version too.

[matrix]

Really? Never happend to me, anyways, it should take less button only attack to stun cause they are weak.

[Supergeon]

I used the combos, because If I am not mistaken there were some moves that could only be executed that way.

I also liked the lack of a run button in G:U, just having the running/walking being pressure sensitive. Also bring back rush from G:U.

[Oasis_S]

I don't remember if Unleashed had this, but one of the few things I liked about StE was the ability to juggle opponents.

Though I think I'm in the minority when I say StE was the worst of the three games...? Looks like people have grown to love it. To me it felt like most matches consisted of blocking, and trying to hit opponents with get-up attacks. :V

[Grayshot954]

Fiender, more than 8 submissions. Min of 20!

[leunames]

Certainly, it could be handled badly. I think the LEGO parallel is the best one - Batman doesn't object to getting a LEGO treatment, even though it means you can do Batman vs. Star Wars. People understand that the interchangeable-nature of LEGO is a bit part of the appeal. Similarly, I think I can write a contract which makes it clear to everyone that an ever-expanding platform offer more growth than a one-time game release.

Let's say release 1 is a Godzilla game, and release 5 is a "make your own movie" feature mode (with no monsters). People will want to make Godzilla movies - so sales of release 5 will, probably, help drive additional sales of release 1. In fact, EVERY release will probably drive some additional sales of release 1. That means more money, over a longer period of time.

If TOHO insisted that their content not be compatible with the broader platform, we'd get sales of release 1 for just a few weeks, and then they would trail off. This is a big win for everyone.

That sounds very promising. I have to admit I'm a bit skeptical though. Not because I don't think it's possible, but more because I just always prefer to over-estimate the protective tendencies of companies when it comes to their IPs. Sometimes they do it to the extent that it's detrimental to profit making. For example, would it be far-fetched to imagine the aforementioned create-a-movie mode featuring Godzilla vs. Gamera, but daiei says "we don't want to see any promotional material featuring Gamera being attacked by, or otherwise looking inferior to, any Toho-related character"

Here's a controls question - did anyone ever use the button-only combos? Things like A,B,X? Or did everyone just dis (dir)+Button all the time, and win the game with single-hits?

I used a combination of the two. For STE online, I used mecha-king ghidorah exclusively. some times i would use the strike combos but as the opponent was falling i would use one of the single-hit attacks since it usually had the desired range.

[hammysammy59]

Here's a controls question - did anyone ever use the button-only combos? Things like A,B,X? Or did everyone just dis (dir)+Button all the time, and win the game with single-hits?

If I use combos intentionally, it's only the most basic ones (a-a-a, a-a-b, stuff like that). I'm more about finding a great move or two (usually a [dir]+button attack) with each monster and finding openings to administer said killer moves: (in DAMM at least) Godzilla '90s was a terror with his jumping tail-spin and charge forward headbutt/bite.

[Brianzilla2004]

Here's a controls question - did anyone ever use the button-only combos? Things like A,B,X? Or did everyone just dis (dir)+Button all the time, and win the game with single-hits?

GSTE: As Godzilla 90's, I primarily used heavy attacks, but I also used the A, A, A and B, B, B combos. With MOGUERA 2 I used almost exclusively heavy attacks. As Space Godzilla, I used heavy attacks only.

GU: I swung the Wii remote as I pressed A+B. Over and over. With every monster. And I won. On Hard. Kind of strange when I can play as Varan and Biollante the same way and almost always win. I REALLY hope the next game doesn't play anything like this...

[Supergeon]

Yeah, I want the game to feel less like work to KO an opponent. I felt like the match took FOREVER in GU and the fighting was not compelling, it worked well enough. It was just boring.
When I play SFxTK the reason I want to fight other than KOing my opponent is to build meter and pull off an awesome move. In GU you had 5 health bars to deplete and it took a while.

[matrix]

Sorry Mr. Strange, I saw you said on a other topic that you could fit more monsters in if it had less stuff in the game, here are some things that people may not like, the, earth defender, mutant, alian, and gdf ranking in story, from G:U. Different factions are just ok, I wouldnt mind if you guys took them out. I am most likely forgeting some, ill tell you them later.

[hammysammy59]

Yeah, the factions were a neat idea, but I feel like they (and the single-player story mode) would need to be a lot more fleshed out to really be worth it. Cool idea, and a worthwhile experiment, but I'd say scrap it for this game.

[Showa Gyaos]

Yeah, the factions were a neat idea, but I feel like they (and the single-player story mode) would need to be a lot more fleshed out to really be worth it. Cool idea, and a worthwhile experiment, but I'd say scrap it for this game.

Agreed. It really could've been better. There were only two paths: your monster's assigned faction, or tyrant. I tried to align myself with the Earth Defenders as an alien, but when I completed the campaign, I received the alien ending.

[Oasis_S]

The faction concept did provide SOME extra replay value, but it was all kind of self-imposed. "Megalon aligning with the GDF. How novel!" Aside from making all the cutscenes, it seems like it would be rather easy to implement, but I wouldn't mind if it was gone. Besides, I don't play these games for the story, lol.

I really enjoyed DAMM's single-player for some reason. Just trying to beat it as fast as possible to get the best score and all. Which was another reason I found StE so annoying since it had those aggravating challenges that GOT IN MY WAY.

Oh, and survival was great in DAMM too. It didn't END like in StE, right?


I think Stange mentioned a "Make your own film" mode last night, which made me think one of the original monsters should be your standard-shaped monster, only with a camera for a head with film reels as its spines, lol. Position the monster to position your camera, etc. Click of a button and you go to an FPS view.

[Chris55]

I think Stange mentioned a "Make your own film" mode last night, which made me think one of the original monsters should be your standard-shaped monster, only with a camera for a head with film reels as its spines, lol. Position the monster to position your camera, etc. Click of a button and you go to an FPS view.

I've been pushing for theater mode since day 1. It all depends on how much we earn in donations though. Who wouldn't like to make their own monster/Godzilla films? Imagine this: No more "trailers" with Linkin Park slapped over em on YouTube!

[Oasis_S]

I will call him Camorah.